{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=E31581F9-80B5-407C-BA5A-4D7FAB15C2BA", "Carper Leads Letter Requesting FTC Investigate and End RIN Market Manipulation", "2017-11-07", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "DE", "Thomas Carper", "C000174", "www.carper.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Tom Carper, top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, along with a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers, highlighted concerns regarding possible market manipulation in the compliance system used for the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program, known as the Renewable Identification Number (RIN) market.\u00a0\u00a0\r\nIn a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Acting Chairman Maureen Olhausen, Delaware\u2019s congressional delegation of Senators Carper, Chris Coons and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (all D-Del.), as well as Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Congressman Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), asked the agency to investigate and end any possible RIN market manipulation under the jurisdiction of the Commission\u2019s Petroleum Market Manipulation Rule.\r\nThe lawmakers wrote, \u201cOver the past four years, RIN prices have fluctuated wildly. Since earlier this year alone, they have spiked over 200 percent. This price volatility creates great uncertainty for obligated parties, especially for merchant refineries like the ones along the East Coast that have limited capability to blend biofuels into their products and need RINS to comply with the RFS program\u2019s requirements.\u00a0East Coast refineries already face slim profit margins, in part, due to their dependence on international markets for crude feedstocks, high gasoline inventories and the competition they face from global refiners.\u00a0Volatility in the RIN market only adds to the East Coast refineries economic concerns.\r\nThey continued, \u201cRIN market manipulation hurts all parties and directly harms our constituents. That is why we urgently request that the Federal Trade Commission use its authority to address RIN market manipulation.\u201d\r\nThe text of the letter is available here.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=E31581F9-80B5-407C-BA5A-4D7FAB15C2BA"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.356257125735283, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}